Mullan Volunteer Fire Department stands out as top team at Fireman's Fun Festival

MULLAN — The city of Mullan once again looked reminiscent of a water park this last weekend when the Mullan Volunteer Fire Department hosted its 49th annual Mullan Fireman’s Fun Festival in the heart of town.

The two-day event featured several activities including a parade, kids games and of course, the famous firefighter competition.

This year’s parade was a big hit, featuring a variety of vehicles, “celebrity” appearances such as Smokey Bear and Sparky, and lots of kids having fun.

Held almost like an Olympic games for firefighters, this year’s competition held after the parade had nine teams (made up of fire personnel and competitive civilians) battle it out in the four water-drenched, firefighting-based events.

The first event was the Make-n-Break relays, where teams had to assemble a fire hose, hook it up to a source of water (in the first round, a hydrant, then a fire truck in the next), knock over targets with the fire hose, then disassemble the hose as quickly as possible. The winners were the team that completed the relays in the fastest time.

Up next was the Bucket Brigade challenge. In this event, participants handed off buckets of water to each other up a small scaffold, then dumped it out as quickly as possible. The team that filled up a large tub at the top of the scaffold in the shortest amount of time took first place. This throwback event shows how fires used to be put out before modern equipment.

To cap off the adult competition portion of the festival, teams dueled with fire hoses in the tug-of-war competition. Participants attempted to push a barrel, connected to a hanging steel line, over the head of their opponents with the help of fire hoses. This is easier said than done when you are also having to withstand getting hit with water from the team opposite of you.

Throughout the competitions, vendor booths were available to provide spectators a cold beverage or a hot meal.

For the most part, mother nature was cooperative and only influenced the event during the Make-n-Break relays by providing wind gusts that threw off the streams of water aimed at targets.

This year’s overall winner was Mullan Volunteer Team No. 1, which won three of the four events and donated their cash prize back to the department (as is tradition).

On Sunday, local children were also invited to try their hand at their own firefighter competition.

MVFD Chief Rick Smith was pleased with this year’s turnout and thankful to those who helped bring it together.

“Overall we had nine teams and a great turnout,” he said. “I’d like to thank all the firefighters for all their time and effort that they put into this, the people who showed up and the teams who took part in it — including the Desert Storm Army Vets who came from all of the United States for a reunion with their buddies. They had two teams and it was great to see them show up.”

For the 50th Fireman’s Fun Festival next year, MVFD is hoping to bring back the bed races event that went away years ago.

In addition to being an event that brings attention to Mullan, all the money raised goes back to MVFD or other local organizations that held their own fundraisers, such as local schools, the Mullan library and the community foundation.

This year’s competition and raffle winners include:

Firefighter competition

1st place — MVFD Team No. 1

2nd place — Idaho Department of Lands Cataldo

3rd place — MVFD No. 2 and The Peons (SCFD No. 1)

Parade winners

Walker Spooner, Harper Carrico, Tanner Carrico, Jase Rose, Kyah Rose, Kole Rose, Kynlee Morris, Lacie Morris, Wesley Morris and Grace Farrell.

Raffle winners

$200 — Peder Johansen

$100 — Mike Summerkamp

$100 — Brent Poland

$50 — Heather Pittman

$50 — Dawn Foster

$25 — Scott Johnson

$25 — Jerry Hartz

$25 — Garrett Brown